1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head and a liquid ejecting apparatus that eject liquid from a nozzle opening, and a piezoelectric actuator that includes a first electrode, a piezoelectric layer and a second electrode.
2. Related Art
As piezoelectric elements that are piezoelectric actuators used for a liquid ejecting heads, there are piezoelectric elements that have a configuration in which a piezoelectric layer formed of a piezoelectric material exhibiting an electromechanical conversion function, for example, a crystallized dielectric material is interposed between two electrodes. The above-described piezoelectric element is mounted in a liquid ejecting head as an actuator device of a flexible vibration mode. In addition, as a representative example of the liquid ejecting head, there is an ink jet recording head in which, for example, a part of the pressure generating chamber communicated with the nozzle opening that ejects ink droplets is configured as a vibration plate, and ink inside the pressure generating chamber is pressed by deforming the vibration plate by using the piezoelectric element so as to be ejected as ink droplets from the nozzle opening.
In addition, as the piezoelectric elements mounted in the ink jet recording head, for example, there are piezoelectric elements that are formed so as to be independent from each pressure generating chamber by the forming of a uniform piezoelectric material layer over the entire surface of the vibration plate by using film forming technology and dividing the piezoelectric material layer into a shape corresponding to pressure generating chambers by using a lithographic method (for example, see JP-A-2003-127366 (Claims 4 to 7, FIGS. 1 to 4).
The above-described piezoelectric actuators are expected to achieve a longer life by the preventing of a leakage path of the piezoelectric layer, increasing the insulating property, and suppressing the heat generation of the piezoelectric element.
The above-described problem is not limited to the ink jet recording head and also exists in liquid ejecting heads that eject liquid other than ink. In addition, the above-described problem is not limited to the piezoelectric element that is used in a liquid ejecting head and also exists in piezoelectric actuators that are used in different devices.